Ash's Upgrade Priority Guide

Hey guys it's Ash and this is going to be my guide on upgrade priorities for Town Hall 9 players. What the most important upgrades are and what you should focus on upgrading the most. Great for Town Hall 8 players planning to go to Town Hall 9.. I will rank each upgrade and also give you a brief explanation as to why I believe it to to be important.

Town Hall 9

Get the Archer Queen

If you’re a TH8 and you’re planning on going to TH9, then there are certains you need to do first. First, make sure your Dark Elixir Storage is level 4 and is filled with at least 62,500 Dark Elixir. Why 62,500 Dark Elixir? Well when you upgrade to Town Hall 9 you get the opportunity of getting the best unit in the game, the Archer Queen! She will cost you 40,000 Dark Elixir to get instantly, but at level 1. And a level 1 Archer Queen is nothing without her ability. So because she is the best unit in the game, she deserves to be at the top of your priority list. To upgrade her to level 2, you must have 22,500 Dark Elixir. That is why you must have at least 62,500 Dark Elixir ready before you hit TH9.

Laboratory to Level 7

It is extremely important that you have also have a builder ready to upgrade the Lab immediately when you upgrade to TH9. This is because you really don’t want to delay your troop lab upgrades. It takes months to complete all your TH9 lab upgrades. Now before you upgrade the lab, you should start a troop upgrade. It takes 5 days for your Lab to complete its upgrade. So if you have a troop that still needs to be upgraded, it’s a good idea to start that upgrade in your lab and then upgrade the laboratory. ​

A smart idea is plan ahead of time. For example, TH9 requires 10 days to upgrade, and a Golem takes 10 days to upgrade to level 2. So if you are planning on upgrading to TH9, make sure to upgrade it when your previous lab upgrade finishes in 5 days. For example, if your Pekka upgrade finishes in 5 days, then that’s when you should start to upgrade your Town Hall. Because 5 days later, you can start your Golem upgrade, and then 5 more days later you’ll be a TH9. There will be 5 days remaining in your laboratory, so you start your laboratory upgrade to level 7, which will take 5 days. So once your laboratory has completed the upgrade, your Golem’s upgrade will also complete at the same time! And without delay you can start your most important troops upgrade first. ​

Spell Factory to Level 4 & Dark Spell Factory to Level 3

Like your Laboratory, you also don’t want to delay your Spell Factory upgrade. It will take 5 days to complete your Spell Factory upgrade to level 4. In those 5 days, you won’t be able to use any Spells, which is a huge set back. Upgrading the factory will not only get you Jump Spell, but will also get you an extra slot, which is extremely important. ​

Clan Castle to Level 5

I know a lot of people prioritize Army Camps over the Clan Castle, but the extra space in your Clan Castle is extremely important. An Army Camp upgrade gets you 5 extra camp space. While a Clan Castle upgrade also gets you 5 more space, but there’s a big difference. The Clan Castle can also be used for defense. Not only that, a level 5 Clan Castle allows you to carry a Lava Hound or Golem, which are very important for wars. The Clan Castle is just overall better than 1 Army Camp.

Army Camps to Level 7

Right after Clan Castle, we have the Army Camps. Upgrading all 4 of them will get you 20 more housing space units for troops. Which is a very big and essential upgrade. ​

Continue Upgrading the Archer Queen

Getting the Archer Queen is of course your biggest priority. But you must continue to upgrade her because a level 2 Archer Queen is still pretty much the same as a level 1 Archer Queen. You main focus is the ability levels. She gets level 1 Royal Cloak ability at level 5, so you want to get that immediately.

Barbarian King

Right after the Archer Queen, the Barbarian King is next on the list. He’s not as good as the Archer Queen in many respect, just because the Archer Queen is just overall better at farming with her ability to shield herself better against defenses. If possible however, you should upgrade both heroes at once. That would be the fastest way to get them at a high level. However, most people are unable to keep both heroes on upgrade, so if you’re alternating upgrading both heroes then I suggest prioritizing the Archer Queen first, and by every 5 levels. For example, get your Archer Queen immediately to level 10. If both your heroes are level 10, then get your Archer Queen to level 15 first, then get your King to level 15. Then Queen to 20, then King to 20, and so on.

Barracks & Dark Barracks

Make sure all your Barracks are maxed out as soon as possible

Any Remaining Non-defensive Structures - such as Storages

That concludes the first 10 important upgrades. As you can see, none of them are defenses. Why? Because your offense is more important than defense. You’ll make more resources from farming with better offense and faster. You’ll also perform better in wars with better offense.

Leveling up your defenses doesn’t mean that you’ll perform better in defense during wars. The stronger your defenses are. the higher you war weight becomes. Which means you’ll be paired up against tougher players in wars.

X-bows to Level 3 (optional)

Now for defenses, the most important defense are the X-bows. I know a lot of people think that X-bows are overrated. And they are both right and wrong. X-bows are overrated in the sense that they aren’t going to make a huge difference in defense like Inferno Towers. While X-bows are very similar to Archer Towers as both defenses have around the same attack range when targeting ground and air, and are both rapid firing point defenses. However, the X-bow is still the best defense for a TH9 because of it’s high HP. A lv3 X-bow has 2300 HP while a lv11 Archer Tower only has 890. Why is this such a big thing? Because this will allow you to strengthen your core much better. While the Xbow is also the best defense against the best unit in the game. The Xbow is the best defense against the Archer Queen because not only does the Xbow do a lot of damage to the Archer Queen, it forces her to use her ability quickly and waste ability as a level 20 Archer Queen can requires 4 hits with her Royal Cloak ability to take out an Xbow, which is pretty much the same as how long her ability lasts. ​

Now I have listed X-bows as optional because it will significantly increase your weight in wars. So if you would like not to increase your war weight and possibly be paired up against TH8s in wars, then you may either to choose avoid building X-bows or build them last when your offense is ready to 3 star opposing TH9s.

New Defenses to Level 6 (Wizard Tower, Air Defense, Teslas)

At TH9 you are given a a couple of new defenses, so don’t leave them at level 1, but upgrade them to level 6 as they will still be able increase the overall strength of your base. Defenses get the biggest increase in DPS at lower levels. ​

Skeleton Traps to Level 3

Skeleton Traps are an excellent defense as they can distract the Archer Queen or Barbarian King while your core defenses quickly take them out. They can also be set to air, as they are very deadly on air as they feed off of Balloons like parasites, while the Balloons have no way to retaliate. These traps don’t take long to get to lv3, only takes a day’s worth of upgrade and they make a very big difference in raids. So it’s definitely worth it to get them to lv3 immediately.

Seeking Air Mines to Level 2

You must be wondering why I have these traps listed above defenses. Well it’s simple, a Seeking Air Mine is very important in weakening a Lava Hound. It only takes 1 day to upgrade a Seeking Air Mine to level 2. While it gets a 300 damage increase, which is a 20% damage increase. Which is actually huge. That’s equivalent to 8 hits by a lv11 Archer Tower in 4 seconds. ​

Red Air Bombs to Level 4

A level 4 Air Bomb does 173 damage, but most importantly it does splash damage. Lv6 Balloons have 545 HP. Which means that if it lands on a group of 5 lv6 Balloons, then it will not only deal about 32% damage, but also do a total of 865 damage, which is HUGE. Proper placement of your air bombs can make a very big impact in your defenses. Make sure to keep your Red Air Bombs away from your Air Defenses because you don’t want Lava Hounds triggering them. A Red Air Bomb only does about 3% damage to a Lava Hound, which is practically nothing. While the biggest reason Air Bombs are ranked this high is not just because of how good they are, but also because it only takes 1 day to upgrade a Air Bomb to level 4 from level 3.

Hidden Tesla's to Level 7

The reason why I have Hidden Teslas this high is because of many reasons. Hidden Teslas only occupy a 2x2 area, which means the total area they occupy is 4 square tiles. While a defense such as an Archer Tower occupies more than double, 9 square tile area. Why is this important? This is very important because this allows for Teslas to fit just about anywhere in your base. 2 Teslas occupy a total of 8 square tiles, which is still less than an Archer Tower or Xbow. While your core can be improved a lot on defense just by adding Teslas to it, which is very easy to do without having to use up so much space. Not only that, Hidden Teslas can sometimes be unpredictable, as they are hidden. They also fire rapidly, and are excellent for taking out heroes and tanks, especially Pekkas. But the best thing about Teslas is their power. Lv7 Teslas are your strongest point defense at TH9. It does 87 damage per second, while a Lv3 Xbow only does 75. So I like to think of Teslas as underrated in that sense, because 2 of them occupy less area than an Xbow, while both of them together do way more damage than 1 Xbow. ​

Wizard Towers to Level 7

Many people believe that Wizard Towers are overrated, but in fact Wizard Towers are very underrated. For farming, your Wizard Tower is very important for stopping common attacks such as Barch, BAM, and GiBarch. While in wars, they are also extremely important. A Lavaloon attack is among one of the deadliest attacks for a TH9. Other than your Clan Castle troops and Archer Queen, your best defense against Lavaloon is not your Air Defenses, but your Wizard Towers. Simply placing your Wizard Towers away from the range of Air Defense will significantly strengthen your base against a Lavaloon attack as this will prevent Lava Hounds from distracting your Wizard Towers. So if a level 7 Wizard Tower attacks a group of 5 Balloons for instance, its splash will do a total of 200 damage per second, which is incredible. ​

Air Defense to Level 7

When you were a TH8 player, Air Defenses were very important for you to stop maass Dragons. But as a TH9 now, Air Defenses aren’t as important as they will be blocked by Lava Hounds and a mass Dragon attack won’t be as common anymore. But they are still a very important defense as it is still important to quickly remove Lava Hounds before Balloons do damage to your base. That is another reason why Wizard Towers are ranked higher, as Wizard Towers can be placed away from Air Defenses to deal damage to Balloons and not be distracted by Lava Hounds. ​

Mortars to Level 7

Mortars are very important to have at level 7 because unlike a Lv6 Mortar, a Lv7 Mortar can take out Lv7 Archers in 1 shot, which is very important for defending against TH10s. Not only that, a level 7 Mortar will also be able to kill lv2 Witches in 2 shots as opposed to a lv6 Mortar that requires 3 shots. It can also kill a level 5 Wizard in 3 shots as opposed to a level 6 Mortar that requires 4. Level 7 Mortars are very important for many situations. ​

Archer Towers to Level 11

I like to think of Archer Towers as a hybrid of X-bows and Teslas. It’s a rapid firing defense like both a Tesla and Xbow. Unlike a Tesla, Archer Towers occupy 3x3 tile space like Xbows. While Archer Towers have a 10 tile range, which is close to an Xbow on ground and air that has a 11 tile range, but unlike Xbows, Archer Towers have very low HP like a Tesla. Archer Towers are rarely placed in a TH9’s core because it occupies too much space, while Teslas occupy less and Xbows are overall better. And defenses in your core should always take priority over defenses on the outsides of a base. Thus, Archer Towers are ranked low.

Air Sweepers to Level 5

Air Sweepers are actually a very important defense. They slow down Balloons and they do have a very big impact on Balloons when at level 5. Like I mentioned, Lavaloon is a very deadly attack, and Air Sweepers do help deter them, especially now since you have 2 of them to protect a large portion of your base and force air attackers to attack you in certain directions. However, they are a liability against Ground attacks, so they aren’t as valuable as the above defenses.

Cannons to Level 11

Cannons are not useless, but they are simply the worst defenses in game. They only have a 9 tile range. They shoot twice as slow as an Archer Tower. They are unable to target air troops. All of this make Cannons the worst defense and so they are ranked the lowest. However, the great thing about Cannons are, they don’t take too long to upgrade and they still do a decent job against tanks. But still, they should always be at the bottom of your priority list.

Giant Bombs to Level 3

Not much to say about Giant Bombs. You only get a 25 damage increase from level 3 to level 4. Not really much of an increase as a level 2 Giant Bomb will still be able to knock out all tier 1 troops and Wizards and Witches. And 2 of them together will be able to take out Hog Riders. So there isn’t much of an incentive to quickly get them to level 3. ​

Walls

The last thing on your list should be walls. Now this does NOT mean that you should upgrade your walls last. I repeat, it does NOT mean that walls should be upgraded last. Walls require no time to upgrade, they only cost resources. What this means is that all of your excess Gold or Elixir should be used to upgrade your walls when you have a Builder freed. You can still farm for level 9 walls as long as you keep your builders busy. When I was a TH9 on my main account, this is what I did. I never kept a builder idle, I kept my builders busy upgrading the aforementioned buildings, and when I had a builder free, I used the extra resource to upgrade walls and the rest to keep the builder busy upgrading. I finished my level 9 walls in 2 months this way without keeping a builder idle and without using any gems.